


Do i make you sick?

by PinkyBee



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Cult, F/M, God Complex, Illness, Kidnapping, M/M, Plague, Plague!Will, Villains, dark!Will, evil!will, rival and lovers, solangelo, villain, villain!will
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26533639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkyBee/pseuds/PinkyBee
Summary: It should have been a normal day without any weird incidents, but it wouldn't be fun if some monsters randomly attacked while Camp Halfblood plays a nice round of Capture the Flag, right? This is exactly what happens. And as if it is not enough, Will Solace disappears after the fight. Nico wants to go and search for him, but something seems wrong...
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 13
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uuh this fic has no specific time, i'd say it would happen instead of trials of apollo, maybe even after this without the few deaths that happened there.
> 
> This fic is for Dinay (@/denied_art on twt) and and Max (@/ophiotcurus on twt) since they gave me the idea (and some plotpoints) for this fanfic ;;   
> Its my first fanfic after 10 years, and also my first solangelo + first fic here on ao3 so bear with me regarding the format ;^;

Chapter 1

It should have been an ordinary day at camp. Really. Lots of sunshine, no weird incidents, no monster attacks - well, at least until Capture the Flag was scheduled.   
Everyone in Camp was excited for this Capture the Flag since it was Nicos real first one, and it seemed like somewhat some normal activities for once.

The Son of Hades was already at the border of the forest, securing his armor and listening to the senseless chit chat. Will jogged to him from his siblings with his usual flashy grin. “Hey, Deathboy! Did you sleep well?” Nico shrugged. “Not really, just the usual.” Will gasped. “What? Nico, you gotta start taking care of yourself! I can’t be always around babysitting you-” but Nico just rolled his eyes and smiled slightly. “But as long as I got you I can enjoy it, right?” Will pouted and sighed before he helped Nico with his armor on his back. 

Chiron started to blow his horn as a signal for everyone to get to their spots.   
The teams were rather balanced this time, but the usual Athena vs Ares fight. Hades and Apollo were both on Athena's side with the Aphrodite and Demeter kids while Hermes, Hypnos and Hephaestus were on Ares' side.   
Most cabins were empty, or at least as good as, since the summer break hadn’t started yet and most kids went to mortal school. 

Nico positioned himself near their flag, and he didn’t really mind, since Will volunteered to stay with him. Something along the lines of not being good at archery anyways, but Nico wouldn’t complain, why would he?   
Will had just positioned himself with his bow as Chiron blew the horn a second time, signaling the start of the game, (though not being as good as his siblings, he could still hit a target if he concentrated enough), before he looked over at Nico and grinned again. “So…. you wanna do something after this ends? Like, take a walk around the sea?” Nico wanted to answer but a rumble stopped him. “what-” the Son of Hades started, but the earth was shaking. They both heard screams from the other campers and started to run towards the noises when suddenly a hand shot out of the ground. “Nico! What is happening??” Will screamed as a zombie started to crawl out of the earth. Nico tried to concentrate and send the zombie back underground- but it didn’t work. “I-I don’t know! I can’t control it!” 

It didn't take the zombie long to be all out of the dirt, then it started to walk slowly at both Nico and Will. The Son of Hades had never seen a zombie like this, it didn’t seem like an... ordinary zombie.   
The fingers of the zombie were pitch black, some were even cut off or probably had fallen off at some point. The face was full of bright red spots and one eye - or were its eye used to be - was hidden under a pustule which pulsated at the zombies eyebrow. Besides the black and red spots the zombie didn’t seem ‘that’ zombie-like as Nico was used to. 

“Something is very wrong with this thing… we need to get to the others!” Nico finally lifted his stygian sword and tried to cut the zombies legs away, hoping that this would slow it down with following them. He took Wills hand and dragged him along to where the noise seemed to come from.   
The first thing they saw were more of these weird zombies. Clarisse was fighting against 5 at once, but they seemed to regenerate once she cut them down.   
Clarisse looked around frantically and when she recognized Nico and Will she snorted. “Hey di Angelo! Can’t you do anything against these zombies?!” Nico just shook his head before he charged in to help fighting. “I can’t control them for some reason! We have to find a different way to get rid of them!”

Meanwhile Will ran to some injured campers to help them up and heal their wounds. He knew the wounds of these zombies, but it didn’t make any sense to him that Nico couldn’t control them. Why were all the zombies victims of plagues? They all had the same marks, like the black finger tips, fallen off limbs or those red spots and pustules. He didn’t think anything when he saw the first zombie, but now that he looked at all the other zombies - there were at least 20 - every single one seemed to have died by some plagues? 

One of the injured campers breathed heavily which made Will snap out of his thoughts and he continued to send some silent prayers to his father, while he gave the kid some ambrosia.   
When Will healed most of the campers he got up slightly exhausted, but still ready to fight and help. It actually seemed that there were more zombies now. Did they even have a chance to beat them at all?! 

Suddenly Chiron came running to them, he had brought the younger kids back to Camp to safety. “Chiron! What is with these weird zombies? Why are they all victims of-” Will stopped when he saw Nico being surrounded by several of these zombies. He was heavily injured and exhausted and probably couldn’t even shadow travel out of this. Out of despair and anger Will took three arrows and shot all of them in one of the zombies head. He locked eyes with Nico for a short second and smiled relieved when suddenly the Son of Hades opened his eyes wide before he fainted and fell to the earth. Several zombies jumped at Nico, and Will was suddenly filled with a rage he never felt before. Before he could do anything his world turned black…

(...)

When Nico opened his eyes he found himself in the infirmary. He tried to sit up carefully, half expecting Will to annoy him to stay down laying on his back but he wasn’t there.   
Instead Austin, his halfbrother, was sitting beside his bed, focused on some musical instrument. “Austin? Wh-Where is Will?” Austin looked up surprised and got up. “Nico! How are you feeling? You were blacked out for days, man!” Nico blinked confused. Days? He couldn’t recall anything that had happened at Capture the Flag. 

“What… what exactly happened? I know we started the Capture the Flag game and then-”   
“Zombies. Zombies you couldn’t control. You were really exhausted within the fight for some reason, we all were. It felt like all my life was drained by these weird things… Anyways, when you fainted Will- he… Well he freaked out? Kind of. It was really scary. Suddenly black fog came from… from Will, from his eyes and mouth and he started to float and-” Austin stopped and Nico was shocked. Obviously. This had never happened before, not in any way. Black fog? Floating?   
“And? Where is Will now?” Nico didn’t notice first that he dropped the temperature by accident, but he took a deep breath and calmed down. Austin sighed before he answered. “Please… promise me to stay calm okay? If not for me then for the injured people in the next room.” Nico scowled, but nodded. “Fine, whatever. Where is Will??” Austin gulped.  
“He… when the black fog appeared all zombies came closer to Will. But they didn’t attack him for some reason. He lifted his arm and a black light came out of his hand and all zombies dissolved in nothing. And with them disappeared Will without any tra-” Austin couldn’t finish this sentence because Nico jumped out of bed and ran outside to the Big House to Chiron, but he had to catch his breath halfway - he still wasn’t on his full strength. Once he stumbled through the door Nico saw Chiron and Mr. D in a serious looking conversation. “Sir! Where is Will?!” Nico demanded immediately, making Chiron turn slowly around, sighing heavy. “We don’t know. We can’t find him. But please calm down and sit down.” Nico breathed heavily before he sat down as asked. “We’ll be having a Headcounselor Meeting to see what we can do. All the others should arrive soon, so please do not worry.”   
Mr. D just rolled his eyes and turned around, mumbling something about getting some snacks and Diet Coke for himself.

(...)

Once most of the older campers entered the house and sat on the table Chiron began to talk.   
“So, what do we know? Does anyone have any ideas?” Nico jumped up. “Yes? I will go look for Will! He has to be somewhere!” Chiron sighed. “I am sorry, but i can’t let you go. Especially not alone. We don’t have any information on where he could be and-” - “And? I’ll ask around! Someone HAS to have seen him someday! I won’t let this happen!” He looked at the others who just looked elsewhere, but not in Nico's face.  
“The hell is wrong with you?? How can you let Will down like this? He always helped you all, no matter what it was about!” Nico hit his fist on the table, but Travis Stoll stood up. “You didn’t see what he did! What if he summoned those weird things? Unnecessary if he did it on purpose or not. He just disappeared with them! He’s not a small child, Nico. And he’s not stupid. Will is able to get back on his own and you know this.”   
Nico was filled with rage, but Chiron raised his voice as well. “Enough! We’re not here to fight. Nico, i can’t let you go without a prophecy from the oracle, you know this. Please calm down now and-” but Nico didn’t listen. He looked at everyone angry before he made his way to the exit. “I’ll be visiting my father for some days, maybe I’ll find some Information since you all are happy to not have another weirdo at Camp.”   
He heard Chiron sigh and a noise as if someone slapped someone's face, followed by Travis' painful shout as he left the building. This was satisfying for a second, but then Nico remembered the situation and he scowled again. Quickly he grabbed some essentials from Cabin 13 before he shadow travelled to the Underworld and his father, Hades. Hopefully he would find at least something there...


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: i changed the second half of this chapter a bit since someone told me it was a bit weird to read, and i hope its better now!

When Will opened his eyes, he found himself in a dark room, tied up to a… throne? He looked around confused. It was a rather big room, at least bigger than any of the cabins at camp. Every window was shut close, so that no sunlight came into the room. Maybe he was underground in some dungeon or cave? Even though Will didn’t have any clues as to how long he was tied, he knew that he had passed out for several days. Probably a son of Apollo thing. Always good to learn something new- wait, he had to get out of these bonds first!  
Both his hands and his feet were tied up together, the hands behind his back, but he didn’t have a gag or anything (thank gods).  
Carefully he tried to turn around to take a closer look at the throne, maybe that could give him a hint?  
The throne itself was huge, and a big, golden shimmering sun-like emblem was at the top of it. The material of the seat and armrest seemed to be some kind of goldish metal, and it was soft but sturdy at the same time. He had never seen a material like this before.  
“What the-”, Will didn’t know why but he felt like this whole room was dedicated to his father? Now that he looked around the room again the whole furniture somehow screamed Apollo in different ways. Was this all a stupid prank??  
Suddenly the door opened and a figure in a hood entered. “Oh! My lord, you are awake! Finally… you have been asleep for 3 days and-” Will blinked. “First: Who are you? Second: Where the hell am i? What happened?”  
The person chuckled. At least he sounded normal, not like a monster. “My lord, you are at your rightful place. You do not belong to that place you were before. All these mere… creatures do not deserve your presence at all.”  
Will looked at him confused. “What… What are you talking about? And why are you calling me lord?”  
“Do not worry. You are at a better place now. You belong here, with your loyal and humble servants. We need your guidance and help now, my lord!”  
Will jumped back as best as he could. Servants? Lord? This was too weird. He wished Nico or really anyone would come and save him, or bust through those huge doors screaming “April fools!”, even if it was late September. 

“You… You need my help? With what?” Maybe they’ll let him leave after he helped them with whatever they struggled with? “Oh, we do not deserve your kindness, my lord! Please, promise to stay with us and i’ll lose your bonds!”  
Will gulped. He could feel how numb his hands and legs were, he really needed to move them as soon as possible! “Fine, I… I’ll see what i can do.” he said reluctantly. The hooded figure jumped up excited and clapped in their hands before grabbing a knife and carefully cutting the thick ropes. Will slowly moved and massaged his hands to get the blood circulating again. “Are you hungry, my lord? Or do you want some water to refresh yourself? Do not forget that you passed out for 3 days!” Will carefully tried to stand up and slowly walked down the 3 stairs from the throne and looked at the hooded person again. They were about half a head smaller than him and didn’t seem strong at all. Maybe they were a kid his age?  
“Yeah, some.. some water would be nice actually. But who are you?”  
The person nodded. “Yes, I’ll get the lord some water soon. For my name… i do not deserve you saying my name out loud, please respect my wish to be just your loyal servant!” Suddenly he scurried out of the room, leaving the big door wide open. Will looked at the throne one more time before he slowly left the room and followed the person.  
The hallway was brightly lit with several candles and there were several rooms connected to it. The walls were made out of big stones and on the floor was a deep red carpet, and everything reminded Will of a knights castle or something like this. He walked quite some time before the hooded person found him again. “There you are, my lord! Here is your water. And I want you to meet everyone now, if you would be okay with this? If you are not too tired?” Will gulped and looked at the cup of water. It didn’t seem poisoned or anything so he carefully took a sip, before finishing the water quickly. “Uhm… I-I guess it’s okay?” The figure nodded excitedly and opened a door to their left. “This way, my lord!” Will followed unsure. Would he ever get out of this and back to camp again??

Will entered a room that seemed a lot like a common room. Inside were about 30-50 people, all dressed in cloaks, some were even wearing their hoods.  
When they noticed him everyone scurried around him, calling him lord or master or some weird name ‘Alexikakos’. Their heights were all different as if several generations were living in this... building? Castle? Whatever this was.  
“Hey, quiet now! Do not overwhelm our savior!” Will took a step back, lifting his hands in defense. “Please, can anyone now explain to me how i got here? And what you all want from me?” Suddenly an old man stood up from a chair near a fireplace. “My lord… please follow along. I’ll give you all the answers you need.” Will looked surprised at the man. He wasn’t wearing a cloak but only an old blanket around the shoulders to keep him warm. He didn’t even notice the man sitting there when he had entered the room.  
The others made way for Will to follow the old man to a corner besides the fireplace with two chairs sitting right in front of each other. Both sat down and Will looked at the old man warily. His skin looked like old paper, just thin and wrinkly, as if he was several hundreds years old. He had a long white beard and was wearing small glasses.  
“My name is Raymond, I am the oldest from this clan. We are the believers of the Lykeion and an old prophecy several centuries ago foretold a golden angel would come protect and lead us. He will have the gift to bring both death and life. The place you were before did not do well on your talents, that is why this tragedy happened, and you could have easily destroyed the whole place. We saved you and your former… companions. I deeply apologize for the way you woke up but you belong here, with us.” Will just looked at Raymond shocked. Gift to bring death AND life? What was he talking about? The only thing he could do was heal others!  
“I-I don’t get what you mean with-” “Quiet down please, lord Alexikakos. This is the truth. I was there when this prophecy was told…” Slowly he lifted his hand and touched Wills forehead with his index finger and all of a sudden Wills head was filled with bright light…

(...)

It’s been several weeks now that Will had disappeared and Nico still hadn’t found any clues. He had asked through half of the Underworld, had even interrogated some monsters he captured along the way, and for what? Nothing.  
After calming down after his sudden exit he had come back to Camp and even apologized to both Chiron and Travis.  
Now he was laying in his cabin, staring at the ceiling, and thinking of what else he could do.  
Why did all this stuff have to happen to him? As if loosing Bianca, stupid Percy and his forced outing with Eros hadn’t been bad enough, no, now that he was finally happy at a place his boyfriend got kidnapped for some reason and he couldn’t find him.  
Slowly Nico sat up. “Finally a place I can call home and-” wait. Home? Family? He hadn’t even considered to ask around in Camp Jupiter! Immediately he jumped off of his bed and went to the little fountain he had Annabeth asked for while she was re-designing his cabin.  
Quickly the boy grabbed a drachma, made a mist and threw the coin into it. “Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Hazel Levesque at Camp Jupiter.” Nico waited for a moment until he recognized his half sister Hazel in the stable. “Hazel? Can you hear me?” Hazel jumped up and turned around to him. “Nico! How are you? I haven’t heard from you in so long- Are you okay?” Oh no. Did he look so tired again? “Uhm…. yeah, kind of.” He sighed. “No, I'm… i’m not okay. We were attacked at the last Capture the Flag by some weird zombies i couldn’t control and now Will is gone.” Hazel watched him concerned and in shock. “Oh no Nico...Is he… dead?” “What? No, no, at least… I hope not. He just disappeared without any trace and I can't find him at all. I even visited father but… nothing. I-I was thinking of visiting you for some days, maybe I’ll find something on my way to you? Or at least to get my mind off for a few days” Hazel nodded excitedly. “Of course! Reyna will be happy and I think Percy and Annabeth will be as well! I’ll tell them right away!” 

(...)

Nico had informed Chiron about visiting Camp Jupiter. He was packing his bag and looked at a bracelet on his bedside table. He had found it after the fight in the forest and had recognized it as Wills bracelet (just in case he had asked Kayla and she had confirmed it to be Wills), and Nico was tempted to take it with him, but he was afraid of losing it on the way or in a fight - you never know what happens to a demigod after all.  
Once he had packed everything he left Cabin 13 and made his way to the border of the camp. Usually he would shadow travel down to Camp Jupiter, and it was actually a stupid idea that he didn’t do it, but he still had hope to get at least a sign somewhere that Will was okay.

Nico made his way into town to a train station, he just wanted to look around and then shadow travel anyway with some stops in between. He got himself a coffee and sat down at a bench, just watching all the people welcoming or seeing each other off, people on their way to work or school, and for a moment Nico just wished to be normal. A normal teenager with normal friends and a normal family. Normal problems like school or crushes (though he had those problems already and didn’t want to have them again). Suddenly a man sat down besides him but Nico ignored him.  
“A nice day to travel today, hm? Wait no, this doesn’t sound like me at all, hm…” Now Nico looked at the stranger- or not so stranger. “A-Apollo? What are you doing here?” He had expected anyone, really. Monsters, other demigods, even maybe Hermes- but Apollo?  
“Wow i see you’re really happy to see me again, guess I can go home again, huh?” Apollo stood up and sighed dramatically, straightening his fancy light blue-coloured suite. His usual longer hair was shorter and he looked more like a fancy businessman. He looked… maturer than Nico had ever seen him?  
“No- Wait, I’m sorry!” Nico rolled his eyes and stood up as well. “I need your help, Apollo. Will disappeared and-” Apollo sighed. “I know. And he’s fine. But I don’t know where he is. Wherever he is, the sun doesn’t shine there. That is why I’m here, actually. I want you to find him. Not now, it can take some time until you see him again, but you’ll help him, I know it.”  
Nico blinked, confused. “Wait- What? How do you know- doesn’t matter.” The important thing was that Will seemed fine. “I have another question: do you know what happened at Camp Halfblood some weeks ago? With these weird zombies?”  
A shadow seemed to pass over Apollo's face for a mere second. “Yes, I saw it. And several other gods as well, which is not good. Listen, I never thought that any of my children would get this… gift, but-” he stopped and looked around.  
“The gods don’t want me to help you actually.” Apollo rolled his eyes, just like Will always did when Nico complained about not wanting to eat fruits and vegetables for breakfast (fruit for breakfast, okay, but carrots? Come ON Will!). “Anyways, just know that my gift of healing comes with a dark side. Will really is one of the best healers out there, and this will be the exact problem-” a sharp whistle from a nearby train stopped him. “Wait, damn it, i have to go. Remember what I told you, Nico di Angelo. You will see him, don’t rush it. Just… get stronger, okay?”  
Nico just stood there watching Apollo disappearing into a crowd while he tried to process what he had just heard. He shook his head slightly to get out of his stupor and took a sip of his coffee before he looked around. He’d probably wouldn’t get any more information than this at all. But at least he knew that he’d meet Will again someday. Only if he knew how long it would take…

(...)

Nico had decided to not make any stops between his travels so he went directly for Camp Jupiter. But he was so shaken by the talk with Apollo that he arrived not… exactly where he planned. When he stepped out of the shadows he looked around to find himself in a bathroom. And he could hear girls talking outside of the bathroom. “Oh no…” he whispered before disappearing into the shadows again, concentrating more on appearing somewhere… safer.  
Once he arrived without any problems he looked around for Hazel, only to find her at the stables again.  
“Nico!” she exclaimed happily and went to hug him tight. “I-I cant breath, Hazel…” She let him go again and gave him a quick kiss on the cheeks. “Are you okay Nico? Did anything happen on your way here?” Nico contemplated telling her about Apollo, but he didn’t want to burden her with yet another thing to worry about. “No, I’m okay, don’t worry. Just a bit tired.” He smiled slightly, but looked up when a familiar voice talked to him.  
“Oh hey Nico! Fancy seeing you with some horses and Hazel here!”, Percy came with Blackjack in the stable and waved at him, Nico just nodded and sighed. He really didn’t want to deal with Percy now, but he was at his own fault for visiting while the university in New Rome was still on break. “How is school going Percy?” Percy wanted to answer, but another familiar voice cut in. “Oh, it’s supposed to be doing very good, right, seaweed brain?” Annabeth entered after Percy and smiled reassuringly to Nico. “Hazel told us what happened at the flag-game, Nico. Is everything okay?” Nico groaned and scowled at Hazel, but he couldn’t stay mad at her anyway, she just wanted to help.  
“Yeah no, I still haven’t found any trace of Will, except-” he stopped and cursed. “Just- just forget it, it’s nothing.” Percy had finished taking care of Blackjack and looked at him seriously. “Hey, I bet it’s not ‘nothing’. We’re here to help if you need us Nico, you know this.” Nico sighed as they all left the stables. “Yeah, I know this. It’s just- it’s something you can’t help with anyways. I can’t do anything as well.” Nico sighed and told them about his meeting with Apollo.  
“Wow, this really sounds like we can’t do anything besides waiting.” Percy said defeated. Nico groaned again. “That’s what i said! All I can do is get stronger.” He sighed again and kicked some dirt around. Annabeth had just listened silently, she seemed to be thinking about something. “You know, that thing about this gift having a dark side concerns me… Hazel, do you think your library could help us get some information?” Hazel contemplated for a moment and shrugged. “Sure, we can give it a try? I can ask Frank for help as well!” Percy groaned now. “Wise girl you basically LIVE in the library, do we really have to read more books now?”, but Annabeth looked at him sternly. “Do you want to help Nico or not? If you don’t want to come with us to the library you could at least go to the training grounds to spar with Nico-” Percy's eyes immediately lightened up. “Great idea! Come Nico, we’ll do some training!” With these words he grabbed Nicos hand and started to drag him along, but he let go of his hands and looked at him unsure. “Oh wait, no touching, right? Sorry-” Nico rolled his eyes, but grinned. “Whatever, you idiot. Let’s train.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read on a website once that lykeion was a temple for apollo once which was used as a school so i just... made a cult out of it hehe.  
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

Two years. Two years had passed and Nico still hadn’t found any clues about Wills whereabouts. But he had trained a lot in this time. Not only with Percy (or Jason as well), no, he had also fulfilled some tasks Hades had asked him about. Like a lot of people dying unexpectedly. Sometimes it was the fault of some monster that had gone nuts for no reason, sometimes it was a mortal problem.   
On a calm sunny day Nico sat in front of his cabin at Camp. Even though everything here reminded him of Will, he still had stayed - hoping that Will really would find his way alone back, or even get the possibility to message him in any way - but no. Nothing. For two dam years.   
Suddenly Nico heard his father's voice in his head. “Nico. I have another problem. Meet me in my throne room.” Nico rolled his eyes. His father always only said the necessary parts, nothing too much. He got up and jogged to Chiron, to tell him that he’d visit the Underworld for some time (He had promised to always tell him whenever he left, it had turned into a habit.)   
In the two years Nico had grown a bit, his hair was longer but one of the Aphrodite kids had forced him to let them cut his hair. Now he had an undercut, and his longer hair was usually in a messy bun so it wouldn’t fall into his eyes while fighting. His skin was still paler than it should be, but he didn’t mind - and his body in general was more toned now, not as skinny and scrawny. Funny how much 2 mere years could change someone.  
Nico quickly talked to Chiron before he shadow traveled to the Underworld, right into his own room in Hades palace. He barely was in his own room since he started to actually enjoy the sun (don’t tell Apollo, he didn’t need another ego boost). Shortly after he entered the throne room, his father Hades sitting on his throne.   
“There you are. In the south is a town with a lot of people dying without any reason. This phenomenon dragged itself through several towns now, but it seems to stay in the southern regions. I want you to look into this, and solve it if possible.” Nico sighed internally but nodded. “Yes, father. I’ll be on my way.” He started to turn around and was about to leave, when Hades said something else. “Good. Be… careful, Nico.” Nico turned surprised around, but Hades had disappeared. Careful? His father was never worried about him, at least he had never said it out loud. Either Hades was getting sentimental in his older days or he… knew something that Nico didn’t. Nico only shrugged. He wouldn’t find out if he stayed in the Underworld after all.

(...)

Nico stepped out of the shadow in a hospital. He thought he’d first take a look at the few people who still seemed to be alive from… whatever was happening. He wandered through several corridors, feeling all the death auras in almost every room. He passed one room with an open door and glanced inside, finding an old woman coughing weakly. Maybe he could ask her for some information?  
Quietly Nico went into the room and sat down besides the woman. She stared at the ceiling with empty eyes, her face full of red blotches and pustules - kind of like the zombies he fought against before Will disappeared. “Hello, Ma’am? Do you hear me?” She didn’t react in any way and Nico sighed. He thought that she still had enough will to live to talk, but now he realized that she looked a lot older than she actually was. As if her life has been sucked out of her.   
Nico stood up again when the woman suddenly grabbed his wrist and held him, pulling him closer to her face. “Wha-” He started but her breath smelled like foul eggs and he just tried to turn away. “The.. golden devil… took every… thing…” she sounded like she was in her mid thirties but looked like seventy to eighty years old. How was this possible??  
Nico freed himself carefully, but he didn’t leave yet. “Golden devil? What do you-” but it was too late. The woman had made her last breath. Nico looked at her pitiful before he closed her eyes and sent her soul safely to the Underworld.   
After this experience Nico left the hospital again. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell him anything anyways, so he decided to stroll a bit through the town. He spent his afternoon getting some ice cream and walking through a park while he thought about this woman. Golden devil… He didn’t know about any golden monsters that seemed to suck out peoples life source. Maybe he should talk to Chiron, to see if he knew anything?   
Suddenly, and he really didn’t know why, he had the urge to leave the park and follow a back road to an open backyard. It was like something was calling him, and when he left the backyard on the other side he saw something - or better, someone - and he was so shocked that the rest of his ice cream fell to the floor.   
Across a rather small town square he saw Will. Dressed in dark clothes, which seemed so… unnatural to Nico. Will, in dark clothes??   
His back was turned to him, and other people in dark clothes were walking beside him. Nico wanted to call out to him, but something stopped him. And this something came running at him at full speed. Of course he had to be attacked by some monsters, right when he saw Will again! Nico grumbled and ran back into the backyard to lead the monster (he didn’t know what it was, but he honestly didn’t care at all) away from mortals.   
He’d find Will again, he was sure of it!

(...)

It took Nico surprisingly long to beat the monster. “Finally…” when the beast finally turned into dust he put away his sword and wiped some dust and sweat off his face. What was Will doing here? He seemed okay but why couldn’t he come back to Camp if he could walk openly in this town?   
Nico went back to the town square and looked around.   
Will was gone. Of course, it had taken Nico almost an hour to kill that monster.   
Defeated he passed the place and went into some backroad again, just to see if he could find Will again. He didn’t have much hope though, after all this town was actually too huge for him to find a single person all alone. And he knew that he should take care of Hades' task too.   
Nico walked through the town all day without any signs. He was about to give up for the day and retreat to find a hideout at a Motel or something when he suddenly felt an unexpected death aura.   
It didn’t seem like a mortal dying the ‘normal’ way, out of old age, but more like… forced magic? Nico quickly followed the aura, getting more quietly the closer he came.   
In a dark alley he stopped and looked carefully around the corner. A mortal was lying on the floor and a person stood over them, their hand extended to the mortal, and dark fog swirled between them. Wait- dark fog?   
“Stop it!” Nico jumped around the corner and unsheathed his sword, pointing it to the person who slowly turned around. Once Nico saw the face he almost let his sword fall to the floor. “W-Will??”   
It really was him. His blue eyes in his freckle covered face, his blond hair had grown even longer in the two years, almost as long as Nicos, and he had tied it in a small ponytail in the bottom. His once friendly shining eyes looked at him cold and calculating. “Will, what are you doing with this.. this person?” Nico lowered his sword. The mortal showed the same symptoms as the old woman in the hospital, and the zombies from two years ago. This had to be some.. some misunderstanding, right?   
Will still looked at him with a neutral face before he tilted his face. “Nico..?” There was no remembering in his eyes, Will seemed confused why he knew Nicos name, and he only shrugged and turned back to the mortal.   
“I have a job to do here. You better leave, death boy.”   
Nico swallowed. “What? What are you-” he looked at the mortal again and realized that WIll really was killing this person.   
Immediately he raised his sword again and pointed it at Wills throat.   
Wait, was Will still taller than him?   
“You have to stop! You- What is wrong with you? Stop or i’ll-” Suddenly Will turned fully around. “Or you what? You’ll kill me?” he laughed as he grabbed some black gloves from his jeans and slowly put them on.   
Nico swallowed again. Will was right. He could never hurt him.   
Will took a step closer to him, the tip of Nico's sword touching his chest. “Tell me Nico. What would you do if I didn't stop hurting people? Will you hurt me? Will you attack me? Send me to the Underworld to get judged by your father?”   
Nico looked at him shocked. That actually had been the plan. Find out who was responsible for the deaths and bring them to Hades. But now? How could he do this to Will? Nico wanted to take a step back, but Will took more steps closer and buried the tip of Nico's sword in his own skin while smiling bitterly at Nico.   
“You can’t hurt me. Don’t try it, my little Ghost King.”   
Suddenly he took a step back again, his wound healed immediately. “Go home and let me do my stuff.” Will turned around and left the back alley without looking back to him.   
Nico just stood there, shocked, before he fell on his knees, staring into the air.   
What had happened in the last 2 wars with Will? This wasn’t his boyfriend. This wasn’t his Will!  
He didn’t know how long he stayed like this in this alley, but when he got up slowly he noticed that the sky was dark. He looked at his watch and found it to be in the middle of the night. Slowly Nico got up and made his way to a Motel to crash and sleep and… think about what happened.   
When he woke up the next day he heard Hades voice in his head. “Nico, i want you to solve this matter quickly. Do not let me wait.” Nico sat up and sighed. What should he do? He couldn’t force Will to come with him to the Underworld, and he didn’t want to hurt him as well. He needed to find Will again and talk to him, he needed to found out what had happened in the last 2 years!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey did you notice that i have no clue about american towns? sorry, i'm from europe ;^;   
> Also i finished Tower of Nero in only 6 hours hhhhh  
> also i'll try to make the next chapter longer, i need to get some more plotpoints to work over the chapters aah


	4. Chapter 4

Nico had barely slept that night. His thoughts had been all the time with Will, thinking of possible scenarios about how he had turned like this, but he hadn’t came to any results that made sense. Did someone manipulate him? Worked some kind of magic?   
When the first birds started to sing Nico sighed and sat up. He was still used to barely getting any sleep, so he stood out of bed.   
Once he took a shower Nico looked out of the window. He was contemplating if he should take a walk through the town again or just stay in his room and do some research, but strolling through the streets seemed more wise to him. So he took his jacket and put on his boots, almost on his way out when he suddenly heard Hades’ voice in his head.   
“Nico, what is taking so long? Charon is complaining about his boat being too small for the amount of souls lately.” Nico sighed and answered him in his thoughts. He didn’t want to waste his powers on visiting his father if there was a possibility of being attacked again. “I’m working on it. I found some clues, but I have to make sure what they mean.” Nico could hear his father sigh in his head. “Just hurry up. I want results, as soon as possible. But still… be careful out there.” Nico blinked surprised, shook his head and left his room. Coffee would be an awesome breakfast now.

(...)

Nico had gotten himself a black coffee and was walking through the streets again. It was still early, and most people were on their way to work. He passed the big plaza where he had seen Will the day before, but besides some pigeons no one was here. The town square was very pretty itself, now he could finally look at everything calmly.   
There was a little fountain in the middle and some stone benches around it, on which Nico took a seat.   
Sure, it was like 7am but he wasn’t used to a town to be THAT quiet, since he got used to living in the 21th century.   
While Nico sat on the stone bench and sipped his coffee the town slowly woke up and more and more people left their home. He watched most of the people without any interest, silently hoping to see Will between them - which didn’t happen, obviously.   
Nico sighed and got up, threw his empty cup in a trash bin and started to walk between the darker alleys again. He spent most of the day walking through these alleys when he suddenly smelled something, something sickly sweet behind him. The smell reminded him of a perfume Will used whenever he wanted to annoy Nico, just this time the smell was way more intense. Nico turned around but he was too slow - someone hit him with a big branch which knocked him out immediately.

(...)

When Nico opened his eyes he found himself in a bright lit room, and he was chained to a wall. His sword was not on his body, probably kept in a different room (sometimes he was jealous of Percy and his sword Riptide, who doesn’t want a sword that always appeared back in their pocket??), but why was this room so bright? Several candles were lit and all lamps were turned on. “What the-”, once his eyes got used to the amount of light he recognized Will, sitting right in front of him on a chair. He leaned back, seeming to wait for Nico to wake up. He wore dark clothes again, and his hair was open this time, long enough to rest on his shoulders.   
“Finally...you are awake, I waited almost two hours for you to wake up.” There was nothing of the old Will in this person.   
He looked exactly like he used to two years ago, but at the same time he didn’t. The way he moved his hair out of his face, the way he looked at him, even the way he breathed - this was Will but at the same time he wasn’t.   
“Will, please talk to me… this is not you. What happened to you?” Nico asked, before he realized why the room was so bright: there weren’t any shadows for him to use, and even the chains seemed to suck out his power out of him. Did Will make this room especially to keep him imprisoned?   
Will chuckled and leaned forward. “What do you mean? Of course this is me, i am still Will Solace like i was when we were in camp”, he smiled, and Nico could see a hint of Wills old smile, but it disappeared as fast as it came. “Will, please… you disappeared, no one knew where you were! Even Apollo, your father, he-” Will made a pejorative noise when he heard his fathers name and leaned back on the chair again. “Don’t mention him again, i don’t want to talk about him.” Nico just looked at him confused, then Will got up. “Guess we’ll talk some more later. Seeya~” Nico just looked after him, even more confused, before he sighed exhausted and let his head hang. He was just really tired of everything.

(...)

When Nico opened his eyes again he was still in this bright room, which started to give him a bad headache..   
Suddenly the door opened and a child, not older than 8 or 9 years old, with some light brown-goldish curls, stepped in with a tray full of food for him.   
Of course. Something that never changed about Will: healthy food, fruits, vegetables….   
“Hey… what is your name?” Nico tried to sound like a friendly neighbours-kid (as much as he could while looking like an emo boy chained to a wall). The kid looked at him warily. “My name… is Leon. Here is food for you, our lord said we should give you some fruits.” Nico sighed annoyed. “Yeah… of course he did. Why do you call him ‘lord’? Isn’t he just… a normal boy?” Well, relatively normal. As normal as a demigod could be.  
Leon looked at him shocked, even a bit hurt. “Our lord Alexikakos is anything but normal! He is our savior! A great prophecy once foretold about our lord, with golden hair like the sun and a gift that would protect us from any harm.” Nico looked at him surprised. Golden hair sure sounded like Will, but what if this prophecy was actually about Apollo? Nothing of this made any sense to him.  
“Hey, Leon… Would you be so kind and extinguish one or two candles over there? I’m getting a really bad headache from all this light-” Leon looked at him for a short while before he grinned widely and did as he was told.   
“Thank you, buddy.” Leon grinned even more. “Sure, no problem! Our lord wants you to stay with us, so I have to be extra nice to you, you know? Do you want me to feed you? The chains are blocking both of your hands after all.”   
Nico shook his head with a faint smile. “Oh don’t worry, i’m not that hungry. You can come by later and help me then.” Leon looked at him concerned for a second, before he shrugged and left him in his room.   
Nico sighed. He really wasn’t hungry, and he didn’t want to have Leon's company for too long.   
What did he mean with Will wanting him to stay? Before he could think more about it the door opened again and Will stepped in again. “Leon told me you don’t want to eat? Haven’t I taught you that fruits and veggies are important?” Nico rolled his eyes. “Stop these stupid little games and let me go. I am no use for you.”   
Will pulled the chair closer again and sat down in front of Nico. “Don’t say such stuff Nico, you know you are always plenty of use for me. I want you to… consider what side you want to be. I can give you anything you ever wanted - and even more.”  
What. the Hades. “Will, what the hell is with you? Did someone brainwash or put a spell on you??” Will sighed and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. “Nah. An old man showed me the light, little Death boy. They need me. They worship me! Do you know what this feels like? To be worshipped like our fathers usually are?”  
Nico just looked at him disgusted. “You sure seem more like Apollo now. Did his ego rub off on you?” Will chuckled quietly. “Oh no. Like I said, my eyes have been opened.” He bent down and grabbed one of the ripe apples that were placed on his tray. “You know…. in the two years I lived here I learned a lot about myself. For example new techniques… and especially what i'm capable of.”   
Nico watched as the apple slowly decayed in Wills hand, and just now he realized what Apollo had wanted to tell him years ago. Annabeth had never found out what that dark side of the gift was, but now?  
“You… can take life with your power?”   
Will smiled slyly. “Not yet from anyone. Mortals and animals are easier than demigods or monsters but…. you get the point. Especially illnesses are easy for me, probably because that’s an Apollo-thing but hey, i don’t complain. I’m not as weak as everyone thought I was. I hope you get it now, my little Death boy.”  
Nico gulped while he looked at the apple. He needed to get out of here, quickly.   
While one part of him thought that Will would never hurt him, a bigger part said ‘Are you sure he won’t hurt you? Make you sick? Kill you?’  
Suddenly he remembered Luke and Annabeth and Percy. This whole situation with Kronos, years ago.   
He had not been there when Luke died, but both Annabeth and Percy had told him how they felt and now he knew how hard it probably had been for both.   
Will threw the apple away and wiped his hand clean, before he noticed that some candles weren’t lit anymore. “Wait a minute-” and all of a sudden all candles were blown out and all lamps exploded into darkness. Will stepped back when the chains exploded as well, and Nico was enveloped in pure darkness before he shadow traveled away.   
Nico had been filled with a rage and a burst of power, and Hades had probably helped him out. Full of anger Will kicked the chair in a corner before he left the chamber and ordered some servants to clean up the mess.  
Meanwhile Nico had teleported himself to his Motel room where he caught his breath and tried to calm down, before he went into the shower to create a mist. He really needed some help from Hazel and… maybe the others as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, i dont remember if nico was with annabeth and percy when luke died but i'll edit if its wrong!   
> also I'm sorry it took so long! my final exams are in two weeks and work is stressing me out so i barely had any energy to write anything aah ;;  
> and i actually planned to make this chapter longer but i felt bad for not posting anything so.... here you go already!


End file.
